Edwin Encaracion

Last week it was lefties beating up on Shane Greene, this week we have the Canadian lefty killers, the Toronto Blue Jays. If you read me at all this season you’ve noticed some themes. Mainly the pitching staffs I enjoy picking on most, Texas and Philadelphia. When one of those two waltzes into a home stadium of the highest scoring team in MLB, I get a little excited. The cherry on top is the first starter just so happens to give the platoon advantage to Toronto’s three best hitters. Not only have the Blue Jays scored 70+ more runs than the next best team, but they own the best team OPS (.832) vs. lefties by over 50 points. This is almost too good to be true, a dream matchup that most likely everyone will be on. Do with that info what you will, but you won’t catch me fading Josh Donaldson tonight, even at a lofty $5,800. Whether it be tournament or cash game, Dongaldson and his 1.051 OPS vs. LHP (or .441 wOBA if that’s the language you prefer to speak) this season will find his way into my lineups to pheast on Adam Morgan. You can fade him if you like, but if he goes triple dong, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Let’s see who else I’ll be looking at on tonight’s slate.

DraftKings was actually a little late to the DFS party. You’d never know it by looking at how prevalent they are everywhere. They have done a wonderful job marketing, nabbing up partnerships with MLB and several major sports franchises along the way. They are one of the two big fishes in the sea right now. Back in the early days of DFS every site had a little chat box that was a place for three things usually. 1) Trash talking, 2) Whining, 3) Immature potty humor that quickly degenerated into things that you’d read on a Yahoo! article comments section. DraftKings came into being after the chat box phenomenon had started to fade away. It’s really no surprise these chat boxes have gone the way of the buffalo, but there are a few smaller sites where they still exist. All of this was a long introduction into me reading one of these chats the other day and seeing someone whining about “stupid Coors stacks”. I’m a Coors stacker, it’s what I do. I try every way I can to get as much exposure to that place as I possibly can on a given night. For me, it’s a worthwhile gamble and one that pays off more often than not. It’s not everyone’s bag though, but you have to be aware of the situation. You can always fade Coors in a tournament, figuring most people will be on that game. If Coors is a dud and your guys go off, you should have a nice advantage. You could go with the flow and stack Coors, or you could just sprinkle in Coors action and pick your spots. The final option of course, if the Coors stacks really bother you is to just sit those nights out. No one will think any less of you. If you are playing tonight, one name I highly discourage fading is Wilin Rosario. Wilin is a beast with the stick and is superhuman when he’s got the platoon advantage (.325/.360/.623 career slash line). Toss in the Coors factor and for $3,600 with eligibility at first base or catcher and there’s no excuse for fading Wilin tonight. Here are a few more fellas you shouldn’t be fading this evening.

What are you all doing here today? It’s Mother’s Day… shouldn’t you be getting out of the basement and going to pick up the pizza for her for once! Go put on your fancy sweatpants, you know, the ones without the hot pocket stains, and put on actual shoes. Slippers or flip flops are not okay today. Seriously, try and do something! Did you remember to write her a Dear Mama letter? What about being mothers little helper and taking out the trash or refilling her bourbon? There are lots of things you can do to help out your Mother. I know they like telling you what to do or what not to do, but sometimes that’s just the way it goes. At least you know mama tried and wasn’t just standing in the shadows… I hope. Let’s be nice to her and just lay off the yo mama jokes for the day? Cool. Oh, that’s right, you are here for fantasy baseball and not just songs and jokes. Yeah I got jokes.

It’s really hard to pick a Creeper for Week 1. I asked myself, do you suggest a player the Razz army all drafted but is undervalued everywhere else? Is telling them to drop a player they drafted for my one week call a good idea? Why does Sky wear running shorts in the shower? How do I know what he wears in the shower? The latter is because I shared a hotel with him during Spring Training (insert winking emoji) and the former is why we are here. Welcome back to Sundays everyone, no not you troll…okay, you can come on over and troll. I don’t mind. Everth Cabrera is a recipient of opportunity this week and like we say around here SAGNOF! Why not start now? Unlike a diet in January this is a regiment that needs to be stuck to for the next six months. Yes we play for six months here. I don’t want any of that, I’m out of it in June B.S. from any of you. You might be surprised what can happen if you stick it out. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

I’m taking my chips and going home from the DFS season. What a ride it’s been making some good calls, some bad calls and sometimes the occasional really confusing link. This will be it for me in the land of milk and money. All $4.75 of my winnings to show for the hours on end I have spent looking at this maddening game called daily fantasy. Fortunately for me I got a break from the guys at DraftKings and they made Andrew Cashner ($6,600) way Way WAY too cheap today and I’m going to bounce on this like a kid in an inflatable castle. Speaking of inflatable things I saw this the other day. That is just all kinds of wrong. Cashner stepped up to his old self in his last outing by going 6, striking out 8 and walking zero…against the Dodgers. Now I get that the Dodgers have been all kinds of hot garbage lately but they still have bats that can hurt you bad. Today he gets a team of WTF in the Diamondbacks and I don’t see Cash letting them small ball him into a blow-up. Play this one with complete faith that I won’t screw you over as I’m out the door. He’s a solid guy at home against a team with nothing to fear. Trust me!

Around here at Razzball we are one big family that is some freakish hybrid of the Brady Bunch meets the Addams Family. Honestly, I’m not really sure what to make of all this. First we have our father Grey, the dad who works all day, comes home every night to a daiquiri, and goes out on the weekend and buys us the $100 high tops we want, but mom won’t let us have. He does this to make up for all the little league games he missed because he was bringing home the bacon. Now, Rudy is our mother, and I mean this in the nicest, most masculine way possible. He’s there to keep everything sensible, clean, and in order. Jay and Sky are the older brothers we come to for advice when we get in trouble, or to teach us how to undo a bra with one hand. Guru is Grey’s illegitimate child from a high school girlfriend that is re-connecting with us, and getting to know his dad. Jeremy and I are the younger brothers just glad to get scraps and a hand me down that isn’t filled with holes. Mike is our reliable uncle, who taught us how to properly swing a bat and to drive our shoulder to the plate when we pitched. Smokey is our cool uncle, who gives us beer and taught us all how to roll a doobie so we’ll be ready for high school. Tehol is our creepy uncle, who wears ridiculous clothes that border on illegal, and who our parents never want to leave us alone with since the “incident”. Nick is our neighbor that takes too many pictures and video of the family, even when we aren’t aware of it. Scott is our bachelor neighbor, who drives a kick ass Iroc-Z and dates a different 20-year-old every week. Our cousins Pete, Josh, Dano, and Tom are always hanging out because their mother, Paulie, and father, Dan, are either drinking or drinking. It’s a family over here, I’ll cut any mother f***er who tries to mess with these guys, and have no problem doing a couple a months in county to protect them. That’s why when Jay called upon me to help him out and cover the RCL recap this week I was ready to step up to the plate and help a brother out.